


Mustard On Your Fries

by LesbianArsenal



Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: Admissions of Love, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Messy eating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-04
Updated: 2018-01-04
Packaged: 2019-02-28 05:23:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13264587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LesbianArsenal/pseuds/LesbianArsenal
Summary: Roy Harper gets stood up, but so does Dick. What's friendship if not consoling each other?





	Mustard On Your Fries

**Author's Note:**

> I'm back from the dead. Enjoy this nonsense I threw together in like four hours.

Roy looked around the restaurant a bit nervously. He noticed a few tables of couples, happily chatting. Everyone was dressed nicely, and he unconsciously tried to adjust his jacket again. It didn’t quite fit right around his prosthetic, but he hoped no one would notice but himself. He smiled to himself as he noticed a woman feeding her girlfriend a bite of her pasta. The girl lit up in a huge smile and started nodding her head.

He looked down at his phone again.

_Looking forward to seeing you at 7!_

His own text stared back at him. There was only a small ‘delivered’ written under it. He scrolled up a bit more, looking through the previous conversations. He was interrupted by a small woman clearing her throat. His head snapped up from his phone.

“We can only hold your table for a few more minutes, sir.” Her face was trying to convey an apology, but Roy mostly saw pity. He looked at the time on the phone and the digital numbers seemed to scream back at him. 7:45.

“Just five more minutes, I’m sure he's just running late. You know how Manhattan traffic can be,” Roy said, giving her his best smile.

The hostess frowned, but instead of saying anything she simply sighed. Roy shuffled his feet a little as she walked back to her hostess stand. His phone buzzed in his hand and he opened his lock screen faster than even Wally could have.

_Hope your date’s going better than mine! Or at least going!_

Roy had been expecting someone else, but the message from Dick made his head feel light for a moment. He readjusted the phone in his hand and typed out a reply.

_I’m pretty sure I got stood up._

Roy hesitated a moment before hitting send. He looked over at the hostess who was glancing over at him as she laughed with a coworker. He sighed and sent the message.

“Give my table to someone else,” Roy said loudly as he walked out of the door. He didn’t turn to see the look on the woman’s face, but he was pretty sure it would have been either amusement or pity and he didn’t care to see either.

The street was busy as he stood out in the cold night. He walked a few paces before his phone buzzed again. He tried to get over to the edge of the curb before he looked at his phone. He brushed shoulders with a few people, and one guy smacked hard into his prosthetic. He took a deep breath and finally got over to the curb and stopped next to a newspaper stand.

_Dude WHAT? Where are you at, let’s do something!_

Roy turned the words over in his head a few times. He knew Dick was just being a good friend, and if he had gotten cancelled on too, then maybe they should bond over the situation. It had been a few weeks since just the two of them had hung out. Roy thought about how his heart had been hammering in his chest every time Dick slipped a casual hand on his back, or playfully punched Roy’s shoulder.

No, they were just friends. Roy tried to shake the ghost of Dick's touch from his thoughts. Dick didn’t think about him like that. He wouldn’t ruin a decade-long friendship with his ridiculous need to be touched. Before he could center his thoughts enough to text a reply, his phone started ringing. On his screen showed a picture of Dick doing a handstand on the ledge of a casino roof in Bludhaven. He swiped the screen, pushing the ridiculous memory to the back of his mind.

“Hey man, I figured calling would be quicker,” Dick’s cheery voice greeted.

“Are you even in the city?”

Dick scoffed, and it sounded a bit reminiscent of a certain younger bat.

Roy decided not to comment on that, and simply filed it away for future reference. “I’ll just go back to the tower, I’m not that far.”

“No! I’ll meet you at the diner, you know, the one next to-”

“You mean the one diner we always go to? Yeah, I’ll meet you there.” Roy ended the call, and started walking towards the small diner that the Titans all liked to frequent.

When he walked through the diner doors, the waitress immediately smiled and waved him over to a booth. Roy recognized her as Cindy, who seemed to always be working.

“Roy! You’re looking so dressed up! What was the occasion?” She asked around her chewing gum.

He shrugged off his jacket and threw it into the booth before he sat down.

“Only for you, Cindy.” He quirked his lips up, but his heart wasn’t in the harmless flirting.

Cindy could tell as she frowned. “Aw, hun, I’ll get you a milkshake on the house.” She pat the table affectionately as she placed a menu down, and Roy didn’t have it in him to tell her she didn’t need to bring him free ice cream.

Roy went to unbutton the sleeves on his dress shirt, and he started with the one on his prosthetic. He rolled up his sleeve as the diner door jingled. He looked up and saw Dick’s face. For a moment, it looked like Dick was deep in thought, but Roy must have imagined it as Dick’s eyes met his own and his entire face morphed into happiness.

“You look much too cheerful to have been cancelled on,” Roy said as Dick walked over to the table and slid into the booth across from him. Roy loosened the tie around his neck and unclasped the top button of his shirt.

Dick smiled in that easy, almost carefree manner he always did. “Always another opportunity for a connection.”

Always another opportunity when you’re Dick Grayson, he meant. For Roy? He had been stupid to think someone would want to find a connection in him. He had moved on to trying to unbutton his other sleeve, but his 'civilian' prosthetic never worked quite how Roy wanted it to. After the third unsuccessful try, he saw Dick’s hands hovering over his wrist.

“Can I?”

“Go ahead,” Roy said. He watched as Dick gently unbuttoned his shirt. He hoped his goosebumps weren’t too obvious as Dick’s fingers brushed against his skin as he rolled up the sleeve. “Thanks,” Roy said, but the words came out as almost a whisper. Dick’s smile just seemed to get a little brighter.

“Here ya go, boys. I got one for you too,” Cindy said, giving a wink to Dick. She sat down the large metal cups in front of them. “Let me know when you want to order, take your time, it’s slow tonight.” She gave them both a smile before heading over to another table.

“This really is the best diner in town,” Dick said as he popped his spoon into his mouth.

“You’re only saying that because Cindy knows we’re good tippers.”

“Maybe so, but their milkshakes are delicious," Dick said around the spoon in his mouth.

“You have absolutely no manners for someone raised by a butler.”

Dick pointed the now cleaned spoon at Roy, “There were eight years before that where I was raised in a circus, remember.”

“I’m absolutely sure your mother taught you not to talk with your mouth full.” Roy shoveled a spoonful of his own milkshake into his mouth. “I, however, was taught no such manners.”

Dick rolled his eyes, but his smile stayed firmly in place. He opened the menu in front of them. Roy watched him scan the options, even though he was pretty sure Dick knew them all by now.

“What happened with your date?” Dick asked as his eyes stayed glued to the menu, “I thought that guy was interested?”

Roy frowned and shifted his eyes to his milkshake. “Yeah, so did I,” He mumbled. Dick looked up from the menu and fixed Roy with an apologetic look. Roy waved his hand in the air. “It’s fine, I should have figured he would bail on me.”

Dick looked contemplative now. Roy tried to find his milkshake more enthralling than his friend’s face.

“What about your date?” Roy asked, trying to steer the conversation from himself, “She was pretty.”

“Yeah, she is, but apparently she got a better offer.”

“A better offer than Dick Grayson?” Roy laughed.

“Hard to imagine, right?” Dick said with a sideways smile. He waved over Cindy. “I think we’re ready.”

“I didn’t even look at the menu.”

“You always get the same thing.”

Roy couldn’t argue with that.

“I’ll get a Rueben today, and he’ll take a burger with everything but the kitchen sink.”

“I’ll make sure you both get extra fries and I’ll bring out that bottle of hot sauce,” Cindy added as she grabbed the menu off the table.

“You’re a dream, Cindy,” Dick said. Roy could see Cindy melt a bit at the words, and who could have blamed her? Roy knew he would. Cindy walked back off to the kitchen and Roy heard her ring the bell as she called out their orders.

“No one at the Tower tonight, huh?” Roy asked. He hadn’t meant it to sound like Dick had chosen him as his last option, but it came out that way.

Dick tilted his head a bit. “I think everyone’s out. I didn’t really check though.”

“Oh,” Roy said lamely. A silence fell over the table and Roy wanted to crawl underneath it and never come out. Maybe Cindy would at least slide his burger under the table for him.

“You know, I think I dodged a bullet with this girl,” Dick said. Roy rose an eyebrow. “She did have ‘likes clowns’ in her profile.”

“And she wasn’t an immediate no?” Roy laughed.

“To be fair, I know I good number of not-completely-evil clowns.”

“I’m sure you do,” Roy laughed. “My not-date still had pictures of him with his ex on his profile.”

“Oh, no.”

“Oh, yes. But he didn’t ask me questions about my arm or what I thought his spirit animal would be, so I thought I would give him a shot.”

“Do you get that a lot?” Dick asked. Roy wished Dick’s face wasn’t so expressive. He could see the clear surprise mixed with sympathy.

“The spirit animal thing? Not a lot. The arm thing? Nearly all the time.” Roy looked down at the hand clutching his milkshake. He wished he could forget about it sometimes. That he would look down and be surprised that his hand wasn’t flesh and bone, but he never could. He suddenly felt his shoulder flare with a throbbing pain that came every time he thought too much about it.

“People are assholes,” Dick said.

Roy looked up at him and could see the anger run across his features.

“Yeah, but what’s new?”

Cindy chose that moment to slide their plates onto the table. “Here you go, extra fries and,” she pulled a large bottle of hot sauce out of her apron, “Hot sauce. Enjoy!” She smiled and winked as she turned to leave.

Roy grabbed the hot sauce and lifted the top bun off his burger. He shook the bottle a few more times than necessary and set it back down. Roy watched as Dick squirted mustard over top of his fries and wrinkled his nose.

“I don’t understand how you can eat them like that, still.”

“Kory got me hooked, what can I say?”

“I lived with Kory for two years and I am proud to say I never put mustard on a single French fry, let alone smothered them in it.”

In an apparent act of defiance, Dick squirted a little extra mustard onto them.

“The true monster of Manhattan,” Roy said, flicking one of his fries at Dick’s face. It smacked him square in the nose and Roy laughed.

“At least I don’t put mayonnaise on my fries, like Wally,” Dick said. He threateningly hovered the mustard bottle over Roy’s plate of fries and Roy grabbed the hot sauce bottle in preparation.

“We don’t speak of Wally’s sauce habits,” Roy said. He threateningly shook the bottle of hot sauce at Dick. Dick moved his plate farther away and placed the mustard bottle down on the table. He put his hands up in surrender. Roy placed the hot sauce back on the table, but kept it close if the situation escalated again.

They ate for a while in relative silence. Roy had been starving after waiting in that restaurant for 45 minutes. When he bit into his burger, sauce dripped down his face and a pickle found its way onto his dress shirt. That bite was worth it though. He picked the pickle off himself and popped it into his mouth. From the corner of his vision, he saw Dick staring at him. He couldn’t quite place the emotion on his face.

“What?” Roy asked. He dragged a napkin across his face.

Dick looked back down at his own food. “You ever wonder why we’re always chasing after new relationships?” He picked up a few fries and shoved them into his mouth.

Roy snorted. “Something about human connections and the societal pressure to have them.”

“I mean, why _we_ ,” Dick gestured between them with another fry, “Are always chasing new things.”

“I don’t think I’m following you here, Dick.” Roy took another bite of his burger. “Don’t we deserve to be happy, too?”

“Yeah, but are we really going to find that in random new people?”

“You know, Wally told you that you didn’t have to download the dating app.”

“It’s not about the dating app, Roy.” Dick pushed his plate a little further from him and leaned back in the bench. He rested his head on the back of the booth and Roy tried not to let his eyes wander down Dick’s jawline to his neck.

“Okay, well, is it about dating civilians? Because I think we’ve both tried dating within the community as well.” Roy took a long sip of his shake.

“Maybe we weren’t looking in the right places,” Dick said. His head shifted, and his eyes were now trained on Roy.

“I’m pretty sure I’ve exhausted my options,” Roy said, but his words came out weak. He knew the banter he was supposed to be giving, but he couldn’t help how his heart was picking up its pace in cruel hope.

Dick’s gaze seemed to get more intense. “You have a lot more options than you give yourself credit for, you know.”

“Right, there’s people lining up around the block to date an ex-junkie amputee.”

“Don’t do that,” Dick seemed to plead. His eyes were softer now, his whole face melting into a pained expression. “You’re so much more than that.”

Roy had to look away from him. He stared at his plate of mostly-eaten food and tried to will himself to pick up a French fry. “Yeah, well if I am, could you inform everyone of that?”

“I’ll shout it from the rooftops.” Dick moved his hand slightly closer to where Roy’s was resting on the table. Roy stared at it for a moment as his heart seemed to beat in his throat. “You know my first thought after my date cancelled?” Dick inched his hand within a hair’s breath of Roy’s. “Good.”

Before Dick could touch him, Roy was already grabbing his jacket and throwing a few bills on the table.

“Thanks Cindy, change is yours!” He called before hastily throwing his jacket on and bursting through the diner door. His heart was hammering so loud it seemed to be the only thing he could hear. He made his way down the sidewalk, matching his pace with the crowd.

“Roy!” He heard in Dick’s voice. He took a deep breath and kept walking, picking up his pace the best he could on the busy sidewalk. He didn’t know what sort of cruel joke the universe was playing on him, but he wasn’t going to find out sitting in a diner.

“Roy, please!” He heard called again, this time a little more desperate sounding. He tried not to think about how hurt the voice sounded. It was better if they just forgot about whatever had just happened. Roy would defeat these feelings and whatever had made him interpret Dick’s actions how he had.

He could hear Dick’s ridiculous windbreaker squeaking against itself. He moved his arm out of the way before Dick could grab it.

“Roy, what’s wrong?”

At that, Roy stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and turned around to face Dick. They received a lot of dirty looks and a few people ran straight into Dick. Roy walked over to a dimly lit alley and Dick followed. They stood there for a moment, just staring at each other.

“Why did you run? I thought…” Dick looked conflicted as he tried to find the right words, but they never seemed to materialize. The silence hung between them.

“Dick, I love you,” Roy blurted out. Dick’s head snapped up at the confession and Roy screamed inside of his own head. “I mean, you know, not like, _love_ , but, you know…”

“I love you too,” Dick replied. “I mean, like _love_.”

Roy felt the screaming in his head stop and his entire body felt weightless. He was floating, surely, in this alley. Maybe this was a psychic attack? Some new form of drug on the streets that he had been dosed with?

“I mean it. I was trying to tell you, in there,” Dick gestured back towards the diner, “I don’t want to date anyone but you. It took me a while to figure it out.”

“You’re usually such a good detective.” Roy felt the words come out of his mouth like he was on autopilot.

“Yeah, well, not when it comes to my own feelings, apparently.” Dick stepped closer to Roy. Roy felt like his feet were now part of the Earth. “I had wanted to tell you a thousand times over, but something always came up. It was never the right time. A thousand other excuses for being afraid of losing my best friend if it didn’t work out.”

“I thought Wally was your best friend,” Roy said, unable to stop the words from falling out of his mouth.

“You’re both my best friends.”

“Can’t have more than one, I think there’s rules somewhere.”

Dick started laughing and Roy couldn’t figure out how to stop it from infecting him as well. Roy’s feet seemed to unstick themselves from the pavement and he backed up into the wall behind him.

“You know, that’s part of your charm. You always know exactly how to ruin a moment.”

“That’s what you find charming? No wonder you have terrible luck with love,” Roy said, but his voice wasn’t harsh, and the smile on his lips stayed in place.

Dick walked up to Roy and put his hands on both of Roy’s hips. Roy seemed to freeze again, but Dick rubbed his thumbs in small circles and Roy felt like he couldn’t move fast enough. To hell with trying to protect himself from whatever this was. He pulled Dick closer to him and ran a thumb across his cheek. He brought his head slightly down and found Dick’s lips with his own. Dick immediately melted into him, returning the kiss with slightly more vigor. Roy could feel his heart pounding in his chest, but he was comforted by the fact that he could feel Dick’s hammering just as quickly.

He broke off the kiss, though Dick’s mouth trailed after his for a moment. He dropped his hand from Dick’s face, letting it touch his neck before dropping to his side.

“Well, this isn’t how I thought my night would go,” Roy chuckled.

“Oh, you don’t usually kiss on the first date?” Dick said, his eyes dancing with mirth.

Roy’s grin slowly grew across his face.


End file.
